Tartarus
by Banjodog
Summary: What happened to Yami just after he died? Before the Puzzle was shattered, and he was bound to it forever, his soul made the same journey as everyone else, right to the Gates of the Underworld...Some Y/Y


Tartarus  
  
Rating: R  
  
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh and all related characters therein do not belong to me. No copyright infringement is intended.  
  
Summary: What happened to Yami just after he died? Before the Puzzle was shattered and he became bound to it, his soul made the same journey as everyone else...right to the Gates of the Underworld....Some Y/Y.  
  
Author's Note: Thanks Ocean, for giving me the idea of this one-shot.  
  
Tartarus: (n.) 1. Gk.Myth. The abysmal regions below Hades where the Titans were confined. 2. An infernal region, hell.  
  
~*~  
  
Pharaoh Yami sat on the bank of the River of Fire and Boiling Blood, staring dowin into its angry currents and trying to remember what had happened.  
  
  
  
He had died. He knew he had died...but where was the afterlife. Surely this could not be it...  
  
  
  
Where was Anubis, the god of the underworld? Where was the scale that weighed your heart, its guilt, and determined your place in the land of the dead? And...where were the others? He was alone, alone when there should be millions upon millions of others, alone on a bank of a river that he had never heard of. Instead, there was nothing but sand as far as the horizon stretched, a solid steel gray sky, and the River, which was too proud to be anything but straight in its path, before which he sat.   
  
  
  
"Phlegethon," Yami addressed, but the River paid no attention.   
  
  
  
Yami climbed to his knees and sat back on his heels. Was this where he was supposed to spend eternity? He quickly dismissed the thought and stood up. All rivers led somewhere, but the Phlegethon was difficult to understand. It seemed to flow in both directions at once. It was a dilemma, but then, if it flowed both ways, then either way wouldn't matter. Yami turned to his left and began to walk along the River, careful not to stray too close to the edge.   
  
He walked. He walked for days, years, centuries, but nothing ever changed, until he came upon the footprints. Eyes widened in surprise, he glanced around for signs of another being, one as lost as him, but there was no one. Yami looked back down at the footprints, examining them closely before frowning. He hesitatingly took a step forward, his foot sliding perfectly into the indentation. Yami recoiled and fell to the ground on his hands and knees.   
  
With silent sobs he began to pound at the earth, not noticing the fact that no pain shot through him. He hit and kicked and raged and screamed in silence that they were his own! The footprints were his own and he had walked in circles without ever wandering into any sort of turn.   
  
They were his own!  
  
Yami collapsed to the ground in frustration. All that time....time that had never existed had been wasted...  
  
They were his own.  
  
*~*  
  
Yami jerked his head up at a sudden, muted sound. Straightening up again, he eyed the far horizon where a dark figure was rapidly approaching him. He waited, muscles tensed, as the drumming rose to a thunder, and a shrill, inhuman sound pierced the silence. Yami cringed and fought to not cover his ears against. it. A great black horse appeared in front of him, rearing back on its hind legs to keep from running Yami down. It cried again, tossing its head violently. It danced lightly in place, foam coating its muzzle. It was then that Yami noticed the beast was covered in blood: it was streaming from the horse's flaring nostrils, and the mane was matted from it.   
  
The horse lifted its front legs off the ground slightly, whinnying. Yami wanted to run, wanted to get away from the obviously wild animal, but he found himself rooted to the spot. A deep, guttural sound drew Yami from his trance, and he moved just in time to keep a cracked hoof from coming down on his foot. He stared in amazement as the horse tossed its head to the side of its body, flecks of flying blood dotting the sand. The horse repeated the action several times before Yami cocked his head slightly and took a small step towards the horse. Snorting, the horse calmed slightly, and Yami took another step forward. He reached out a tentative hand and ran his fingers across the gore coated fur. The horse stilled.   
  
Narrowing his eyes, Yami leaned across the back of the animal. There was no reaction. Yami summoned the courage and, grabbing a fistful of mane, lept up. His leg had just made it over when the horse bolted forward, forcing him to throw an arm around the neck to keep from falling off.   
  
The horse was running impossibly fast along the River, the wind howling in Yami's ears. He looked under his elbow to see that the horse left a trail of blood in its wake, a trail that immediately began to gravitate towards and flow into the River beside them.   
  
Yami felt something very cold against his shins and he turned his attention downwards to see that horse's blood-sweat was coating his legs all the way around. It was becoming increasingly difficult to hold on, and he found himself slipping just as the horse snorted and fell to its knees, tossing him over its head. Yami quickly sat up and looked at the horse. It was lying on the ground, dead. The pool of blood around it did just as the trail had done, the River drawing it in.   
  
Yami jumped as a wooden oar was planted next to his hand. He looked up and then recoiled in horror. A skeleton, partially covered in rotting flesh, stood leaning against the oar and peering down at him through empty sockets. Yami crawled backwards, too paralyzed to run. He could only watch as the skeleton slowly raised a hand and pointed to the boat behind him. His gaze darting between the skeleton and the boat, Yami stood up and walked over to the shore where the boat had been partially dragged up. He glanced at it and placed a foot in, testing its strength. It sank slightly under his weight. He turned back around and saw that the skeleton boatman had moved just half a foot behind him. Startled, Yami fell backwards and ended up sprawled across the single wooden bench. The boatman then got in and used the oar to push off from the bank. Yami held onto the edge and stared at the boatman, whose own sightless gaze was fixed on something far off in the distance.   
  
*~*  
  
As he felt a harsh smack to his hip, Yami woke from his dreamless sleep and sat up to look over his shoulder. Stretching all along this side of the River was a dark forest, invisible to him until he had made the journey across, the vegetation was tangled together in the smoky, oppressive humidity.   
  
There were two more smacks from the oar, signaling to him that he needed to get out. Yami stepped onto the rocky shore and the boatman immediately pushed off again, heading back the way he came.   
  
Yami faced the forest and its wall of deformed trees, and, seeing no other option, started to stride towards it. Almost instantly, a large she-wolf lept out of the brush, her lips pulled back in a snarl. Yami bent his knees slightly, falling into a defensive posture. The wolf's hackles were raised and her sides were heaving. Yami could count the ribs, two of which looked broken. There were several gaping wounds, but oddly no gore, and her ears were lying tightly against her massive head. Yami began to approach her when she growled dangerously and tucked her tail underneath her belly.   
  
Ah, an obstacle this time...  
  
Yami smirked and raised his left hand, palm facing outwards. The wolf angrily jerked forward, as if she were fighting against a restraint. Yami merely held her gaze, his crimson eyes boring into hers in a silent command.   
  
Let me pass.  
  
He took two more steps forward and she dropped to her stomach.  
  
Let me pass.   
  
Yami knew that what he had once taken for a rocky shore was really covered in bones....countless bones...and he knew that many had been intimidated by this sight and fallen before the jaws of Uncertainty. But he knew this game, and the more he pressed, the more he advanced, the more the invisible bondage on the wolf tightened. It strangled her, crushed her legs and tore her ears....without him saying a word.   
  
Let me pass.  
  
He walked past the wolf, and she attempted to bite him, but the things that held her broke her jaw, and Yami was free to enter the Forest.   
  
*~*  
  
Yami had discovered a small trail that meandered through the trees, so he was able to travel unhindered. The path grew gradually wider, smooth from the numerous footfalls that had passed over before him. Yami paused when the path of dirt became paved with large white stones. The stones led to a rectangular hold in the ground and continued down into that hole in a well-formed staircase. Yami walked down the stairs, stopping at the bottom and staring into the pitch blackness. A torch suddenly flared to life on his right, creating an orange, dusky halo of light. Yami picked the torch up out of its wall brace and continued foward. As he moved, the torches that were previously dormant awakened, providing more than enough light to see until he reached a spot where the darkness was not retracted, and even his own torch could not penetrate it. Yami took a step back and waited until a deep, menacing purr sounded from beyond the black barrier. He waited, waited until a large paw, covered with tawny fur stepped partially out of the shadows and into the light.   
  
The Sphinx towered over Yami, its wings spanning the width of the tunnel when folded. A woman's head looked down at him from the lion's body, her hair forming a rust colored mane. Yami stared back impassively.   
  
A stone tablet was pushed his way, skidding to a stop at his feet, and the Sphinx laid down before him. Yami looked down to see an inscription on the tablet. Language was never a problem, for after death, all souls knew all languages. Yami read it.  
  
What creature walks on four legs in the morning  
  
Two at midday  
  
And three in the evening  
  
A riddle, then.  
  
Yami knelt before the tablet and ran his fingers across the riddle. The key with riddles was to never look too deep for the answers...he picked up the black drawing stone also offered him and wrote his answer.  
  
Man.  
  
Another tablet was pushed to him.  
  
What is weightless, can be seen by the naked eye, and when put in a barrel, it makes the barrel lighter  
  
Yami wrote again.  
  
A hole.  
  
Another tablet.  
  
How far can you walk into the woods  
  
Halfway.  
  
One more tablet.  
  
What is the beginning of eternity  
  
The end of time and space  
  
The beginning of every end   
  
And the end of every place  
  
Yami frowned. He reread the riddle several times, but the answer refused to come to him. The Sphinx was growing impatient, her tail whipping against the tunnel walls and causing dust and dirt to fall around him. She demanded an answer immediately. All were free to turn back at first, but once they had started...the Sphinx rose to her feet, the hair along her spine bristling. Yami knew he had to come up with the answer fast, but the riddle held back its answer. The Sphinx's footsteps shook the earth beneath him, threatening to break his concentration. He reread the riddle once more, stopping at the line that read: "the beginning of every end..."   
  
The beginning of every end....  
  
The beginning of every end....  
  
Yami's eyes widened as he made the connection and tested his theory against the other lines. The Sphinx was nearly to him, her muscles rippling beneath her skin in barely contained rage. Yami quickly wrote his answer and slid it back. It was a single letter:   
  
E  
  
The Sphinx halted her advance and stared expressionlessly down at Yami. Yami returned her gaze for a long moment before the Sphinx bowed deeply. Yami inclined his head in respect and the Sphinx moved from the path she had been blocking.   
  
Striding purposefully from the tunnel, Yami dropped his torch on the ground to let it burn itself out.   
  
He blinked his eyes against the sudden bright light, and discovered that he was right near where he had started, the tunnel vanishing behind him. He was on the bank of the raging Phlegethon, in the middle of a flat desert and gray sky. However, Yami was this time not alone. Sitting near the bank of the River was a group of four men sitting at a table playing cards. Two Saluki dogs, a breed that Yami recognized as having in his palace, sat at the men's feet under the table. One was entirely white and the other black, both staring at him intently.   
  
Yami approached the table, but one of the men held up his hand in an unmistakable sign telling him to stop his approach. Yami instinctivily did so, but he grew angry at the suggestion that he should wait. Two more cards were played on the table and three of the men leaned back in their chairs, shaking their heads remorsefully. The winner stood up and turned to Yami. The black Saluki rose and stood obediently at the man's knees, heeling perfectly as the man began to walk towards the former pharaoh. Yami frowned and backed up a step. The dog perked its ears and tail up at the action, but the man merely smiled gently and placed his hand at Yami's lower back and applied pressure some pressure.   
  
Yami was tempted to dig his heels in and refuse to budge, but he had not come this far for nothing, and was rather curious to see what he was faced with next. He let the man guide him away from the group and the white Saluki, which was wagging its tail slightly.   
  
He was unnerved by the presence of the black dog, which refused to take its eyes off of him, but he kept his head high and ignored it.   
  
The light was growing dimmer as Yami was led farther away from the River, a purple twilight descending around him. The Phlegethon was no longer in visible, but a new river was coming into view. Unlike the Phlegethon, this river was made of water, clean and pure. Yami's Guide stopped a little ways away, but gave Yami a small push towards the river. Yami batted his hand away and went to his knees before the water. He was thirsty....moreso than he could ever remember. The journey had made him tired, and the water was too tempting....  
  
He cupped a hand and dipped it below the crystalline waves, the pure refreshing feel of it nearly making Yami faint from delight. It was not until then that he realized he was covered in dust, a thick layer of it from head to toe, and the river washed it all away, making him clean again. Yami sighed and brought his hand back up, enjoying the sight of it sparkling in the half-light of coming nightfall. He brought it too his lips when he froze, several panicked whispers reaching his ears and telling him its name.  
  
Lethe.  
  
Yami stared down at the water in his hands, which was strangely enough not running through his fingers.  
  
This was the River Lethe. The River of Forgetfulness. The River from which all souls drank before they descended to the mortal world and were born. The River....from which all souls apparantly drank after they left, as well....  
  
Yami glanced back at his Guide, and also at the black dog. Its shining black eyes revealed Yami's ultimate sentence:  
  
GEHENNA.  
  
Yami nodded and quickly downed the water that he had captured. He immediately began to cough and gag, the water so cold as it traveled down his throat that it burned. He clutched at his head and throat, doubling in on himself. The dog was quivering with energy, jerking like the Wolf of Uncertainty had done, and holding back only at the Guide's command. Yami's body had begun to twitch uncontrollably, his head swimming with nausea and excrutiating pain. Names, Ideas, Places, Things, Memories....all were being ruthlessly cleansed from his mind. He was in such agony he could not move, even as the ground began to crack and moan beneath him, the mangled hands of demons reaching out to him. With a savage roar, the dog broke free from the Guide's hand and lept at Yami. He was being thrown into Hell.  
  
And it was then  
  
That the Puzzle was shattered.  
  
The leaping dog was stopped in mid-air and thrown harshly to the ground as the earth slammed itself back together and resealing the demons inside. The Guide fought to keep his balance, watching in horrified amazement as the shadows of dusk solidified and crept alongside Yami. They forced themselves inside Yami's ears and eyes, causing him unspeakable pain as they quickened to negate the rest of the effects of the Lethe's waters. The Guide, terrified and confused, ran to Yami and picked him up. He ran back towards the Phlegethon and tried to outdistance the Shadows.   
  
He found it hard to hold onto Yami, for the darkness tugged incessantly at the pharaoh's body and tried to bring it to them. Yami was theirs, and they would not have it any other way. He was now bound to them, and they wanted their prize. They wanted their sacrifice. And the Puzzle had more power than Heaven and Hell could ever dream of.   
  
The men at the table stood, their chairs falling to the ground even as the White Saluki attacked and bit at the Shadows. The Guide ran to the Phlegethon and desperately tossed Yami in. It was the ultimate banishment, but even there the Shadows followed him.   
  
Yami's silent screams filled with blood and fire, his expression filled with bewilderment and shock.   
  
Something had gone wrong.   
  
The Shadows smothered him, closing off all vision and shutting down his mind.   
  
*~*  
  
Yami awoke in a Void of Nothing. All around him was blackness, white noise projected at full volume. He was lying spread-eagled in the Void, eyes blinking rapidly. It was all he could do to show his agitation, for all his body was frozen from all movement. Even the beating of his heart...so reassuring on his previous journey....  
  
There was simply nothing.  
  
"Kkw," he whispered, the Void allowing him his one consolation of a single word that could be voiced.   
  
Pain shot through him, but his cry was swallowed instantly and completely by the silence. He felt his legs snap together tightly, and the pain increased. He grimaced and fought against the impeding actions, but failed. One after the other his arms were brought into an 'X' across his chest, his hands fisted at their opposite shoulders. It was the same position he had seen his father in as they laid him in his sarcophogus...and it was the only position the Shadows saw fit to put him in. Tall stone walls sprouted up around him in a labyrinth-like fashion and an icy chill came down upon him. The Shadows released their hold and Yami's body relaxed. He would be able to move the first time he woke. He was to sleep. It was only then that Yami was allowed to close his eyes.   
  
And it was then that Yami dreamed.   
  
He dreamed away the millennia, waking only occasionally to rant and scream and tear and curse at the Puzzle that had drawn him away from the Gates of Hell and from the Phlegethon itself, which had never released a soul before.  
  
He dreamed of civilizations rising and falling, people living and dying, languages forming and wars and peacetime being waged. He dreamed of a world that grew ever smaller....he dreamed of schools and airplanes and computers and pencils. He knew about telephones and microwaves and radios. He learned of the ever shifting countries and increasingly complicated politics. He could hear across the globe and under it and above it. The moon was not so far away, the stars could be understood, and the weather could be predicted. He listened to the languages and the changing trends and trains....He *knew* until a archaelogical group discovered the Puzzle. Every man who tried to solve it died, unable to handle the fusion of the pharaoh's soul into his own. They were already complete. And Yami realized he needed to find the one who wasn't.  
  
He had heard stories, though he could not remember them, of souls being split...forever searching for their other halves...  
  
He began to wonder, but the Puzzle would have none of that, and brought down its iron fist upon the sleeping Yami, waking him from his dreams and allowing the residue of the Lethe's waters to seal away his memories of his mortal life.   
  
The Puzzle refused to let Yami sleep again, forcing him to wander aimlessly through the labyrinth it had built. Yami was not allowed to search....because only the Puzzle knew who it was looking for. There was only one it could be.  
  
Yami was free to scream and rage that Hell would be a better place to spend eternity....that Hell was a far more merciful place than this...and he had done nothing to deserve such punishment. The Puzzle had even been cruel enough to not let the Lethe purge his memories for good...they were under lock and key...far enough to never reach them, close enough to torment him.   
  
Wait, the Puzzle would command. I wait.   
  
Every moment the Puzzle would tell him to wait. Until it finally fell silent.  
  
And a light sparked in the darkness.   
  
Yami snapped his head towards it, disbelief flooding his body. He ran towards it, wanting the perfection and sweetness of it, until the Puzzle snapped its heavy chains around him, keeping him from the one thing that could save his sanity.  
  
It must be solved first. Wait. I wait.   
  
Yami chewed and tore at the chains, but they refused to budge. His skin was peeled raw from the struggles, but he continued to pull just the same.   
  
MINE! he screamed to the Puzzle. AND YOU CANNOT TAKE IT FROM ME!  
  
The Puzzle merely gloated in satisfaction.  
  
MINE! Yami ordered, throwing his body to the ground in hopes of dislodging the chains. HELL AND ALL ITS DEMONS....HEAVEN AND ALL ITS ANGELS AND GODS...I WILL FIGHT THEM ALL! I WILL FIGHT THEM ALL! I WILL FIGHT YOU! I WILL KILL YOU ALL! IT'S MINE! I WILL BE WHOLE AND YOU WILL BE NO MATCH FOR ME! I WILL DESTROY *YOU!* IT'S MINE!!!  
  
The Puzzle tightened its chains, choking Yami into unconciousness.  
  
I know.   
  
Yami was forced to sleep again, this time helpless as the Puzzle drained him of all self-awareness. New thoughts came to him...thoughts and memories that blended and melded so well into his mind he had for a while forgotten who he was. He became........  
  
Yuugi.  
  
MINE.  
  
Yuugi.  
  
MINE. MY LOVE. THERE IS NO OTHER.  
  
The Puzzle released the chains, sending the still unconcious Yami to the floor. The former pharaoh had held his end... he had survived, so the Puzzle would relinquish its power to him. The Puzzle would forever own his soul...but now Yami held its power.  
  
And damn to the Ninth Circle of Hell whoever stood in his way again. Whoever threatened this precious light that he had found...He would make them suffer far worse than he had...Yuugi was HIS. His for no one else to touch or hold. They had not fought for him as he had.  
  
They had not shattered the earth in Limbo...they did not anger the Phlegethon so that it devoured all that strayed too near....they did not conquer millennia of nothing....  
  
Yuugi was his.  
  
The Puzzle was his.   
  
The Shadows were his.  
  
Yuugi was his, and no one else's.  
  
May the Phlegethon eat at them.  
  
May the Wolf ravage them.  
  
May the Sphinx rip into them.  
  
May the Black Dog fling them to the demons.  
  
May the Lethe erase them.  
  
May they never know peace.  
  
YUUGI IS MINE.  
  
And damn the rest to hell.  
  
~*~  
  
FIN  
  
Author's Note: Whew! My first Yu-Gi-Oh one-shot, and I must profusely thank Ocean, who supported me through this!   
  
Gehenna: a state of torment or suffering. Hell.  
  
Kkw: an ancient Egyptian word meaning, "darkness." 


End file.
